by Elliot Colla, Illustrated by Ganzeer
Radix Media
2/25/2020, Saddle Stitched Booklet
SKU: 9781734048711
Radix Media is proud to present We Are All Things, a prose poem by Elliott Colla, illustrated by Egyptian artist Ganzeer.
An ordinary room in Cairo. A man, now alone. An assemblage of household objects that aren’t so inanimate.
The objects we own bear witness to our secret lives. In We Are All Things, a quiet room becomes a noisy backdrop to heartbreak and other forces of sentience. Here, pillows bemoan lost touch, lamps flicker with the memory of darkness, and the stereo coos a forgotten melody. This illustrated prose poem marries the rhythmic melody of poetry with the fluidity of visual narrative and invites us to imagine the mystery of feeling and the longing nature of existence.
Equal parts Maurice-Ponty and Yahyā al-Tāhir ‘Abdallah, We Are All Things is the first collaboration between Elliott Golla and Ganzeer. The chapbook features an introduction with Molly Crabapple.
Reviews:
“We Are All Things is the perfect collaboration between an artist and a writer. Words and pictures combine to show us what cannot be seen and to tell us what must remain unspoken. A tiny room in a contemporary Arab city becomes the gateway to an infinite horizon. The universal experience of desire and loss. A small, but stunning, work of art.” —Seth Tobocman, author and artist of You Don’t Need to Fuck People Over to Survive
“Ganzeer and Colla push readers to think beyond existence to where secrets can be held by the objects in their lives.” —Manal Shakir, Arab News
About the Contributors:
Elliott Colla teaches Arabic literature at Georgetown University. His first book, Conflicted Antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian Modernity, explores the colonial roots of modern Egyptology and the ways modern Egyptians have viewed the Pharaonic past. His 2014 novel, Baghdad Central, has been adapted as a television series by Euston Films and Channel 4 (UK), coming soon to Hulu. His current academic projects focus on protest cultures in contemporary Egypt.
Ganzeer operates seamlessly between art, design, and storytelling, creating what he has coined Concept Pop. With over forty exhibitions to his name, Ganzeer’s work has been seen in a wide variety of art galleries, impromptu spaces, alleyways, and major museums around the world, such as The Brooklyn Museum in New York, The Palace of the Arts in Cairo, Greek State Museum in Thessaloniki, and more.